Blue jeans celebrate 140 years

By Daphne Sashin and Toby Lyles, CNN

Updated 1922 GMT (0222 HKT) May 20, 2013

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Blue jeans through the years – Denim jeans -- or trousers, waist overalls or dungarees -- started out as work-wear for hard labor in mines, factories and fields, as seen on two fruit pickers in British Columbia in 1942.

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Blue jeans through the years – By the '50s, denim had become popular with everyday Americans, children included. The grandmother of these twin boys "thought it was time they looked like little boys instead of babies," said iReporter Janie Lambert, whose husband, right, was about 3 years old in this 1952 photo. The pants were a deep blue denim (no prewash in those days).

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Blue jeans through the years – In the '60s and '70s, people began experimenting with flares, bell-bottoms and extensions to personalize their jeans and get a few extra years out of them. As a teenager in 1972, Jim Heston was growing faster than his jeans were wearing out, so his mom sewed on the red extensions.

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Blue jeans through the years – Not all those looks were successful, especially early renditions of what's now known as the Canadian tuxedo. Patricia Alfano sewed this ill-fitting outfit for her husband, which he wore quite a bit until "I had to admit to him it was a 'fail'." All that denim, plus the large blocks of contrast "made him look like a hippie Smurf."

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Blue jeans through the years – Clothing became another way for young people to challenge norms and minimize the gender gap, paving the way for the mainstreaming of jeans across all spectrums of society. Shown here in 1975, Jim Heston wore the belt buckle on the side of his waist.

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Blue jeans through the years – Men were historically the ones promoting denim fashions, until cutoff denim shorts came along. Barb Mayer, second from left, in 1974, says she would be embarrassed to wear such short shorts today.

Blue jeans through the years – Acid-washed, severely bleached and ripped jeans were trendy in the mid- to late '80s, thanks to punk and heavy-metal rockers who popularized the style.

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Blue jeans through the years – Just about every '80s kid in America had a jean jacket, preferably with patches, pins or rhinestones. In 1983, when Beth Barret was 13, her mom bought her this jacket and her grandmother sewed the patches. Barret's daughter, shown here in May, often wears it now.

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Blue jeans through the years – In the 1990s, denim fell out of high fashion as other fabrics and styles overtook style trends in casual wear, like khakis and cargo pants. But the high-waisted and grunge styles of the decade are coming back.

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Blue jeans through the years – To this day, blue jeans remain the uniform for cowboys young and old. Here, Bruce Beasley and his grandson load cattle on their farm in Patricia, Alberta, in May 2013.

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Blue jeans through the years – Recent years have seen a revival of appreciation for untreated denim common in the days of Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss. Today, however, purists like Tyler Madden, left, and Lesli Larson (who both work in the apparel industry), favor raw denim from Japan, including their beloved 1947 Sugar Cane denim. "They are simple, unadorned, and fill the role of classic blue jean better than any other pants that can be bought today," said Madden. Larson added, "I feel like I could toss out the rest of my wardrobe and live in these pants for the next decade. "

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Story highlights

Blue jeans were invented in May 1873

Every U.S. consumer owns seven pairs, according to Cotton Incorporated

iReporters shared their favorite denim looks

Jim Heston, an American guesthouse operator in Cambodia, has lived a life in denim and has the photos to prove it. There were the dungarees he wore as a little boy, the dark bell-bottoms he had on for a hike up Japan's Mount Fuji, and the Levis straight-leg 501 jeans he's stayed with for the past 36 years.

At 54, Heston doesn't get embarrassed anymore, "but if I had to share any of these blue jean moments a few years back, I would have been a little more reluctant," he says. In particular, there was the snapshot of him on a Hawaii beach in a Daishiki and jeans his mother extended with red fabric because he was growing faster than his pants were wearing out.

"They're the most unique piece of clothing everyone owns because they keep changing as you wear them," said Angelika Corrente, who runs Denimhead, global trend forecaster WGSN's denim division.

A few facts about denim:

1. Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, came up with the idea of riveted pants in response to a customer whose pockets kept ripping. He feared someone might steal his idea and recruited Levi Strauss, owner of dry goods wholesaler Levi Strauss & Co., as a business partner. They obtained a patent on May 20, 1873.

2. Denim jeans -- or trousers, waist overalls or dungarees -- started out as work-wear for hard labor in mines, factories and fields. By the 1980s, as high fashion brands began to introduce the concept of designer jeans, the shape and fit began to slim down.

5. Environmental awareness has pushed denim laundries to improve techniques for bleaching and coating jeans to give them different looks, Corrente said. Where lots of water, aggressive washing and sandpaper was once the norm for creating that worn vintage look, lasers and and ozone gas cameras are now being used to minimize water waste and chemical runoff.

6. This year's trends are marked by a hybrid appreciation for fads of other eras. You're as likely to see someone rocking the heavy raw denim popular among '60s bikers and rebellious youth, an '80s-inspired high-waisted, flower print, or the acid-washed, ripped-up grunge look of the '90s.